Here’s my take on some super simple garden makers. I like my garden makers to all look the same because I feel like it creates some visual continuity among all the variety of plants.

1.) Gather your supplies. You’ll need: craft popsicle sticks ($2), pencil, and wood burning tool ($14). 2.) Draw/sketch out how you’d like to write your names. If you’ve got different tips for your wood burning tool you can basically create your own font. I could only find one tip, so I had to go with simple block lettering. 3.) Burn your names into the sticks. 4.) Admire your work. 5.) Place in your garden. You can also easily burn the back of the stick so that you can view the name from all angles if necessary.

Last weekend, Kyle and I hosted our friend Duran on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night and our friends Adam and Kathleen on Sunday night. This was the first time since New Years Eve that the two hospitable guest bedrooms were full and that meant we needed a bed. Last time, we had friends camping on the floor, which probably would have worked this time, but it’s more comfortable to have a bed and we needed the excuse to do something with that room anyway.

In this bedroom, a regular box spring and bed rails solution wouldn’t work for the bedroom because a queen box spring won’t fit up the stairs. We investigated other options and a split queen box spring was going to cost us $160 in town. Add to that the cost of bed rails ($40) and it seemed a bit extravagant. So, with the help of Instructables, we built a cheap, easy, low-waste platform bed by aeray in the room.

You can follow the instructable as well as we could, so I’m not going to recount the steps. I will, however, say that Aeray makes some of the best instructables and I love how it all turns out.

We did this project as a team. I measured (twice) and Kyle and Duran cut the pieces. It could easily be done as a one-person project and, in fact, the assembly almost was a one-person project as Kyle and Duran chatted with me, fetched beers, and offered advice while I assembled. So I’m betting, it would take probably less time by yourself.

When we had the wood cut, we carried it all upstairs. This is my favorite thing about building furniture for ourselves, I’m really not limited by that weird dog leg in my staircase. (It cuts down on the amount of regret I feel that we didn’t consider cutting the wall down and carving out a closet or whatever crazy idea I have for fixing it.)

I was also seriously impressed with how low waste this project was. The photo above is all of the waste we had. And it wasn’t even really all waste because we used that long piece to space the legs. It makes me feel like a badass that my degrees in humanities don’t mean I’m not good enough at measuring and math to build something. Mary laughed when I told her that I liked how the bed came out because I really just don’t like having spare wood around my house, but it’s true. Storing excess scrap wood just isn’t my thing. I like the precision.

The assembly is so, so easy. Our biggest problem was that the fir ate the pilot bit off of our countersink on the first hole so we had to adapt and pilot with a wood screw and then countersink the eight holes for the frame.

Our finished product turned out great! Kyle’s only complaint is that it’s a little tall. I don’t disagree about the height of the bed. The measurements of the frame come out to about 2 feet off the ground. I think the instructables intends for it to be used with a futon mattress but our mattress is a deep pockets pillow top so it’s a bit of a climb to the bed. I love a high bed, though, so I’m not complaining. I guess it’s something to consider when you make your own.

Welcome to So Eclectic

So Eclectic is a blog dedicated to great ideas for home design. Austin, Texas-based writer Mary Marcum and Savannah, Missouri-based writer Jess Rezac feature affordable decor, decorating solutions, and inspiration. At So Eclectic, we experiment with design together. So Eclectic posts new content every weekday.